As the granddaughter of a highly regarded optometrist, I could probably write a very dry dissertation on how optical illusions work, but for today let’s just say static motion illusions are cool. For example, the image above isn’t a rotating GIF or a Flash animation, it’s an ordinary still JPEG. I  know it looks like it’s moving, but that’s just tiny adjustments in your eyes assimilating that movement. Pretty cool, eh? I could look at this one for hours. And while this is captivating online, image how impactful it would be in print.  Nothing says 21st century innovation better than a printed image that moves! Perhaps this should become the next campaign for Apple?

Let’s look at some more.

Let’s be honest, the Japanese are geniuses with wacky innovations. I would be remiss if I didn’t share any of the crazy innovations Marc and I saw on our recent journey to Japan.

Let’s start with their innovations with the QR bar code. Designed to be  read quickly, these codes are now used everywhere from billboards to advertisements. You take a photo of one with your cell phone’s camera and then present that image at the store to be scanned as a coupon or as a ticket. Here’s a billboard in Tokyo that, when you take a photo, loads a special website on your phone.

I love this set of  “cordial invitations,” designed by Keetra Dean Dixon. The whimsical designs and messaging are helping to remedy my February blues. I would like to receive one of these cards, cordially inviting me to “Invest in the Fantastic,” “Make Luck,” or “Twist the Cynical Loop.” I love the delicate and playful quality in the typography – much of which appears to be created by combining geometric shapes and colors. See the individual cards after the jump.

I guess it is the end of the party. Following the amazing courtyard design last year by Work Architects, last week PS1 announced that the design above, by MOS architects Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith, would be gracing the courtyard this summer. MOS wins the 10th annual architectural invitation to design the courtyard space that houses PS1’s summertime outdoor dance party. An honor that grants them $70,000 to fulfill their dream design.

Perhaps it is just my intense love of last year’s exciting proposal, but personally, I can’t help but feel like the architects may have run out of things to do.

If you’ve looked at our photo journal you know that one of the most shocking things about our trip to Japan was that there wasn’t much sushi to be found. It turns out that the U.S. version of Japanese food I love so much is just that, a U.S. version of Japanese food.

The Japanese eat sashimi but only as a side dish, most often on special occasions, not really as a meal. As I discovered, a more traditional Japanese meal includes: ramen, rice, gelatinous rice products, eggs, and pork—lots of pork—in everything. Vegetarians, beware!  Even my best-laid plans to have a tofu or egg dish always included pork somewhere.

I love cake and I have to confess, I especially love cakes from a box mix, which I think is a virtue because my mother never had to bake me one from scratch. With this in mind I’m sure you can imagine why I was freaking out to discover these instructions for how to use a box mix, to bake a rainbow cake. I can’t tell if I love, or if I am frightened by, the fact that the recipe calls for all diet products to make it ‘fat-free’, but I can assure you I’m going to have to try this masterpiece soon. Maybe I’ll bake it for Allison, who sent me this hot tip!

While it has been brutally frigid in NYC this winter, my walks outside have been made warmer by seeing this amazing ad campaign featuring day-glo images by artist Steven Wilson. These summery-fresh-tastic images are so over-the-top, so surreal, so dripping with color, it makes me want to wear shorts and skip barefoot in spite of the icy sidewalks all around.

I hardly noticed what this poster was even promoting; it just made me smile the instant I first saw the dripping hot dog at our local bus shelter. Stylistically, it looks like Peter Max  dreaming about the Yellow Submarine in an art gallery filled with artwork by Claus Oldenburg.

Check out Steven’s website for even more amazing images from this campaign here. And, of course, don’t forget the nycgo.com site.

Stay warm!

Japan, was amazing….
LEDs everywhere
rabbits everywhere
no sushi anywhere
low level electricity in my bath water
both of my friends are a foot taller than their mothers
I ate a fish head
our friend, Aaron Meshon, is big in Japan
love hotels are amazing
cat cafes are for crazy people
we are never allowed back at the karaoke bar

Sit back, relax, and take a trip to Japan, without the 17-hour plane ride and 2 weeks of jet lag. View our photo journal here.

I was recently thinking about the “stuff” we surround ourselves with, and the degree to which good design plays into our lives, making it better or worse. Some designs are brilliant, rewarding the user — while others become dated, or were simply ill-conceived, resulting in disappointments.

In an effort to bring clarity to the “Form vs Function” debate, I asked the designers at MSLK to make a list of the items they encounter every day, grouping them into four categories:

1) Beautiful  &  Useful
2) Beautiful  &  Not Useful
3) Ugly  &  Useful
4) Ugly  & Not Useful

Click below to read what we came up with…

There’s probably a very good reason why the Japanese are light-years ahead of the rest of us when it comes to cutting-edge graphics, although it’s not my job to speculate. Instead, I simply marveled at it all as I had the opportunity to wander the streets.

MSLK’s recent trip to Japan found us taking picture after picture of cool trends, colors, shapes, and patterns. These are things you needn’t go to a gallery or museum to see, either — they’re all around you — in subways, on buses, on sale in convenience stores, and all over the street.

Click below for some of our favorites…

Though I consider myself an art appreciator, I have a difficult time investing money in art. I’ve been known to plunk down a chunk of change for a great chair or sideboard, but I always find myself stopping just short of sealing the deal when it comes to a piece of art (not so encouraging coming from a graphic designer, I know). As a result, the walls of my apartment have largely been left undecorated. A few months ago, though, I found out about 20 x 200, a site dedicated to bringing limited edition pieces of art to the masses at a variety of price levels. After some hemming and hawing, I bought my first print from the site this weekend.

It is with a tremendous amount of love that I write this post, having just returned from one of the most eye-opening (if not wallet-opening) trips in my life: a trip to Japan with Sheri.

We had an amazing time visiting shrines, temples, museums, and sampling the cultural riches from the streets of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya to small towns such as Kasugai and Owariashi.

I will leave Sheri’s more pragmatic nature to post things from the “high” road, and will walk you through some of the offbeat things which caught our eye from a decidedly “lower” road.

Hope you enjoy…

I was recently asked by USA Today to share my New Year’s resolutions for 2009 as well as my thoughts on New Year’s resolutions in general.

As you may know, we are just returning from an inspirational trip to Japan where we spent New Year’s with some local friends observing the Japanese traditions for the holiday. The Japanese version of New Year’s is far more reflective than the raucous good time Americans associate with the occasion. Gone were the streamers, noisemakers, balloons, champagne, and expectations of the “night of my life” and instead I spent a spiritual evening looking backwards, and then forwards.

As a true tech-geek, I have been a long-time visitor of Gizmodo, a blog dedicated to highlighting gadgets, gizmos, and cutting-edge consumer electronics. The site is updated throughout the day with a combination of genius innovations (medical robots to assist doctors) — along with reviews of the inane, too (an interactive LED beer pong table) from all around the world.

The editors clearly share a few obsessions with MSLK: love of design, all things Apple, iPhone, cool cars, guitars, and new forms of communication. “Dude” stuff. They also have an equally skewed sense of humor.

I’ve found that their most intriguing items are not the mass-produced ones, rather, it’s the limited-edition ones and the home-brewed solutions which prove that necessity is not always mother of invention. (Most likely, lack of a social life for these folks is the true cause…)

Recently, Gizmodo opened Gizmodo Gallery, a brick and mortar gallery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and I went to check it out. It was amazing to see how well a blog translated to reality.

Every year, big name fashion designers and architects create Christmas trees to be auctioned off for charity in Paris at the “Les Sapins de Noël des Créateurs” event. The participating designers this year included Louis Vuitton, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Gucci, Stella McCartney and Paul Smith. Zaha Hadid’s tree was the most sought after, fetching 46,000 euros (or about $66,000) at auction. Each tree has its own unique theme, many correspond to the core values of the brand that created it. Read more to see some of the best designs from this year.

This year we bid 2008 farewell with the MSLK Holiday Party at our favorite burger joint: Pop Burger.While a massive rain thwarted our plans to check out the department store window displays along 5th Avenue, we enjoyed an assortment of burgers from a variety of flora and fauna (Sheri turned us all onto the guilt-less pleasure of the “invisible burger” — a battered & fried portabello mushroom).

Marc, Sheri and I all attended the Chanel Mobile Art exhibit in Central Park this past weekend. To be honest, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I had heard more buzz about the structure (a Zaha Hadid “mobile gallery”) than the exhibition itself. Though not all of us agreed, I thought it was an interesting experience and a unique way to view art. On a whole, it seemed to fall somewhere between attending an exhibition at gallery in Chelsea, and attending a red carpet event.

I have a love of Japanese candy, stationery, office products, house hold items, baubles, etc. Why — because they make me happy. Of course this is already a heavily discussed topic, centering around the Japanese obsession with cute or “kawaii”. But even more than cute characters like Hello Kitty, Pikachu, and Gloomy Bear, I love the Japanese approach to making products that are useful, efficient, enjoyable, and pleasing to the eye.

Last week we attended the Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards. While all the attention was justifiably on the recipients, (my former boss, Michael Bierut of Pentagram received the Design Mind award and our friend, colleague, and recent Spark host, Scott Stowell, received this year’s Graphic Design award), I found myself enamored with a bunch of seat cushions gradating in color, stacked, and arched between 2 chairs, suspend from the ceiling. A rainbow in the sky.

The event design and concept was created by the fabulous team at David Stark Designs in conjunction with 2 high school students from the Cooper-Hewitt’s Lehman Scholar program. And while the overall look and feeling in the tent was an explosion of Dr. Suess colors-meets-Alice and Wonderland whimsy, the theme was actually “simply green.”